The invention relates to a vehicle roof with a roof aperture surrounded by a frame and displaceably receiving a closure panel for opening and closing the aperture. In the conventional vehicle roofs of this type (see, for example, German Patent 2,016,492), the assembly of the sliding closure panel with its guide and drive elements is relatively expensive, since many individual parts per se must be mounted, in part, to the frame and, in part, to the closure panel. Another disadvantage of the conventional arrangements resides in that a functional testing is possible only once the top has been installed, because only then all individual components have been assembled.
Disadvantages of the aforementioned kind of vehicle roof are overcome in part by the arrangement disclosed in commonly assigned, copending U.S. application Ser. No. 10,468, filed Feb. 8, 1979, the co-inventors of which form part of the present application's inventive entity. More particularly, this commonly assigned application discloses an arrangement whereby the entire guide, actuation, and displacement mechanism for a sliding closure panel can be prefabricated so that the work involved in installing the arrangement in the vehicle roof itself can be reduced.
The present invention is intended as a further development beyond that disclosed in said co-pending application, and has as objects the providing of a vehicle roof of the aforementioned kind wherein the expenditure for the mounting of the sliding top is further reduced and which also permits a functional testing of the drive means for the top prior to installation.
These objects have been achieved according to a preferred embodiment of the invention by its various features as disclosed herein.
By means of arrangements as proposed in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention, the installation of the sliding roof on the assembly line of the vehicle manufacturer becomes extremely simple, since, after providing the roof aperture and the frame, the preassembled installation unit need merely be placed into the frame and attached thereto with screws. Since this installation unit contains all of the functional parts of the sliding roof, the testing of its functioning can take place prior to installation. Thereafter, it is merely necessary to insert the top, connect same with screws to the installation unit, and thereby adjust same in its height to attain alignment thereof with the fixed roof part in the closed position.
The guide channels for the cables in the zone of the front edge of the roof aperture are frequently constituted by tubes, and in the region of the center of the front edge, a hand crank with a pinion is provided, in engagement with the cables. In such a vehicle roof, the tubes can be attached, according to the present invention, in the zone of the front edge of the roof aperture to a cover extending over the width of the frame, which cover is connected to the forward ends of the lateral guide rails, whereas the rear gutter is pushed onto the guide rails. Thereby, the installation unit has the shape of a stable quadrangle which can be readily transported without there being the danger of disintegration or bending of this unit. Since the rear gutter is normally guided in the guide rails receiving the sliding blocks, and thus the guide rails are fixed only toward the inside and toward the outside by the gutter, simple synthetic resin clamping members can be provided for purposes of transportation, which are clamped to the gutter and retain the rails, and which are removed after assembly.
The tubes can be clipped onto the cover. It is the most simple procedure to manufacture the cover of a synthetic resin and to provide ribs on its underside, which ribs are provided with corresponding recesses for the tubes, and the tubes can be pressed into these recesses.
The pinion is preferably mounted in a plate attached or clipped to the cover.
Since the rear gutter must be shifted together with the top, but must be movable relatively to the top in case of vehicle roofs wherein the top is not only rearwardly displaceable but can also be swung out with its rear edge upwardly past the fixed roof, for the reason that this rear gutter cannot participate in the swinging-out motion of the top, it is advantageous to connect each of the ends of the rear gutter by means of a respective rod to the respective forward sliding block carrier. Inasmuch as the top, during its swinging-out motion, is pivoted about an axis extending approximately through the two forward sliding block carriers, there is no shifting of the rear gutter in this type of articulation, whenever the top is swung out.
A significant simplification of the structure of the assembly unit is obtained if the guide rails and the guide channels extending along a lateral edge of the roof aperture are formed by a joint rolled sheet metal profile. It is known to construct a guide rail and guide channel from a single light metal extruded section. However, such an extruded part is expensive in its manufacture and is also relatively heavy. Besides, such a part is subjected to increased abrasion, particularly by the threaded cables. In contrast thereto, a rolled sheet metal part can be produced more simply and more cheaply; it has a lower weight and furthermore shows a significantly lesser abrasion due to the higher strength of the material.
To facilitate mounting of the top to the installation unit, it is extraordinarily advantageous to connect, on each side of the top, the forward sliding block carrier to the part of the swing-out element on the top side by means of a rail, the top being attached to this rail with screws. Thereby these parts, which must be connected to the top but initially are present in the loose form, are fixed in their mutual position. In this connection, it is to be noted expressly that this suggestion is not limited to a vehicle roof with the installation unit of this invention, but can also be utilized advantageously in vehicle roofs lacking such an installation unit, because this feature eliminates the otherwise necessary individual mounting of the forward sliding block carrier and of the part of the swing-out element on the side of the top, to be performed for each side of the top, and accordingly, the assembly work is considerably reduced.
Preferably, the aforementioned rail consists of a synthetic resin wherein the forward sliding block carrier, as well as the part of the swing-out element on the top side are cast into the synthetic resin or are molded thereto. Therefore, suitably the part of the swing-out element on the top side forms part of the rail. In a customary swing-out mechanism, for example, according to German Pat. No. 2,016,942, the sliding slot serving for the lowering of the rear end of the top from the closed position prior to the backward sliding of the top is thus arranged directly in the rail. The stability of the mounting of the top to the rail can be significantly increased by providing that the mounting points are in different vertical planes. Preferably, three mounting locations are provided which, as seen from above, are at the corners of a triangle. The central mounting point can be constituted by a projecting extension of the rail. In such a triangular arrangement the danger of a twisting of the simple metal fishplates attached to the top and screwed onto the rails is considerably reduced.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, a single embodiment in accordance with the present invention.